Immigration bill advances in Senate

Source: Associated Press

Immigration bill advances in Senate

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Tuesday to jump-start a stalled
immigration measure to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants.

President Bush said the bill offered a "historic opportunity for
Congress to act," and appeared optimistic about its passage by
week's end.

The pivotal test-vote was 64-35 to revive the divisive legislation.
It still faces formidable obstacles in the Senate, including bitter
opposition by GOP conservatives and attempts by some waverers
in both parties to revise its key elements.

-snip-

Tuesday's outcome was far from conclusive, however. The measure
still must overcome another make-or-break vote as early as
Thursday that will also require the backing of 60 senators, and
there is no guarantee that it will ultimately attract even the simple
majority it needs to pass.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070626/ap_on_go_co/immigration_congress

I read the whole 628 pages and it's a bigoted piece of conservative legislation that will cost the American tax payer millions and will do very little to alleviate the real problems behind the so-called immigration problem.

Ya right - and Cheeny is not in charge either

This bill is about marginalization, not immigration control.

did not address the gaping loophole in the laws. That loophole is that you can claim ignorance of the illegal's status. In other words if you get caught hiring illegals, you can say you didn't know they are illegal and you get off scot free. The wording is very open for abuse now just as it had been in the past.

Also, there is no direct way of checking legal status. It's still up to the employer to screen employees for the right documents, then they file a document to the INS and the HSO stating they have done so. Excuse me but it seems that only two documents are needed a Social Security card from the SS office and a work permit and legal resident card from the INS. Shouldn't both those documents be verified directly with those offices?

Don't say it can't be done. Your grocery store, bank and credit card use technology today that can instantly verify if you have the credit or bank balance in real time to pay for your purchases. Surely the same technology could verify the legal status of potential employees.

Bush wants it, who will stop him?

rally to stop him there. Today's vote was 39 Democrats for cloture, 9 against; 24 Repubs for cloture, 25 against.

Repubs in the House are drooling in anticipation that the Senate will pass this bill, so that they can get the credit for killing it.

this corporate boondoggle: Bayh, Byrd, Dorgan, Landrieu, McCaskill, Rockefeller, Stabenow, and Tester. (Plus Sanders, "Independent" who sits in the Democratic Caucus, also voted against it.

This bill gets me more angry the more I think about it.

:grr:

Give'em hell Lou.

but I'm glad he's getting in the trenches for this one.

Illegal immigration is an insult to every single law-abiding person who has ever come to this country legally. If the Mexicans and Central Americans would come here legally, I would have absolutely NO problem with their arrival.

But I don't like people coming here illegally any more than I like Bush waging war illegally. I'm democratic: I hate all criminals equally. ;)

but they laid down for * on "his" decision on immigration.

This insane bill is supported by 22% of America!

22% rules? What the H?


:mad:

Why are Democrat U.S. Senators enabling Bush?

The guy is a proven liar, he has stolen two elections, he lied us into an unwinnable war, so on and so forth.

Now, Dems like Kennedy, Reid, and Biden are helping Bush to pass legislation that the national Chamber of Commerce wants?

Really ... I just don't get it.

Could someone please explain to me why these Democrats are joining forces with Bush?

The dems see a bill that shrub is pushing.

For the sake of image to the electorate they whiz all
over the proffered legislation.

Shrub gets with his lobbyists and the negotiations start
with the cranky liberals.

The lobbyists offer $$$$$

The libbys are pacified.

That's Rush's term not mine.

Partly because they may believe that the 12 million illegal immigrants deserve a compassionate resolution to their legal status. We can leave them the way they are, legalize them in some manner, deport them forcibly, or make life so miserable for them (no jobs, no apartments, no education, etc.) that they voluntarily return to the desperate poverty they left behind. Don't ask me why, but they seem to have chosen the legalization option.

Partly because they hope that by passing a compassionate immigration bill with overwhelming Democratic support (39-9 on the cloture vote) against determined Repub opposition, they will cement the Hispanic vote for another generation or two.

improved as time goes on. If it doesn't pass, then we get nothing until the next admin--years away. How does that serve ANYONE?

That's what they said about NAFTA - to sell it. Look at all the improvements they have made on NAFTA.

We have the laws on the books right now to help the middle class with the downward spiral of wages but they don't enforce them.

With the HB-1 visa attachment to this bill, it will ensure the high-tech jobs that are left in the US will go away too. Better they do nothing then they give away more jobs.

a fair period of time for qualified Americans to be considered for those positions, before allowing visa-holders to get them, I don't see a problem. Now, I don't know if the bill provides for that timeframe, but it should. I see a much BIGGER problem with offshoring these hi-tech jobs--I would prefer our tech edge to stay here, rather than go to India. As far as the immigration situation goes, I just think that this ball needs to get rolling--it's been 20 years, and doing nothing is why we're in the mess we're in--further doing nothing to address at least SOME of the issues involved is helpful how? Yes, I believe in enforcement of fines against employers, securing the border, etc.--if the bill addresses these issues, great. If it only solves a few problems, and doesn't create more, and worse, problems than it solves, then I'm for it--but we'll have to see how the amendments go. I for one would like to see the "pathway to citizenship" begun, so we can start taxing these folks, thus making them contribute to society.

Hi tech jobs go to the lowest bidder - namely the guy they imported from India with a promise they will help him to bring his wife over

open first for Americans--I was under the impression that Durbin recently had an amendment for that in the Senate H1-B wrangling. As far as salary goes, I would have to see some proof that there is a vast difference in salary between the visa holders and their American counterparts to say for sure, but I know that corporations are always going to get the best deal--not a shocker. Either way, it would hurt Americans to get shut out of hi-tech jobs, or have to agree to lower salaries for those jobs, but it would hurt us worse as a nation to totally lose those jobs, and the technological know-how, to overseas operations. Attracting the best and brightest to our shores is not a bad thing--would be nice if we could find a way to do that without screwing our own workforce.

because that was were this type of visa was specifically aimed.

Electrical engineers
Electronics engineers
Software engineers
IT administrators

instead of kicking it down the road for another few years. It may not be perfect, it may not solve all the problems, it may do some harm as well as some good, but the only way to find out is to implement it and see how some of the provisions work (under the watchful eye of "we the people"), rather than bitch and moan for the next few years while the same untenable situation continues to worsen.

the only benefit is increased profits for international corporate shareholders due to cheap labor. anyone that supports this is either stupid and/or complicit.

when we can build another bureaucracy? If I were an illegal immigrant I would just keep doing what I've been doing and avoid all the constraints.

I'm trying to figure out which one I am--guess I must be stupid then, LOL! If no one's enforced the existing laws for 20 years, then clearly there's something wrong--perhaps it's time to revisit those laws and make some changes so that SOMETHING about this situation can be improved. Maybe it's time to rethink our whole approach to this. Maybe this bill can at least begin that process. I don't think it's stupid to not want the perfect to be the enemy of the good--and I think there are some good ideas in this bill, and some bad ones (24 hours for a Z-Visa background check? Yeah, THAT'S realistic)--I'll reserve final judgment once all the amendments are hammered out, but this is one case where doing nothing at all would be worse than trying to tackle at least SOME of the problems head-on.

it's blanket amnesty.. welcome to the 3rd world amigo

There are a number of problems with the bill as it stands, but it's better than the clamor for mass deportation that may follow its defeat. Cutting off debate certainly does not get us anywhere.

when his approval gets to 15% or so he should see if he can get voted "King For Life"

breathed life into Bush and raised him four or five percentage points in the polls. Fred Thompson is smiling.